Piracy has plagued the shipping industry off East Africa for years, but the violence used during the attacks - and the money demanded in ransoms - have increased in recent months. Pirates now hold some 30 ships and more than 660 hostages.

The average ransom now paid to pirates is in the $5 million range, a huge leap from only three or four years ago when it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Hard to find too much sympathy for Americans sailing into Pirate-infested waters. Besides, weren't these the same idiots who decided to separate from the safety of the bigger armada? This is like when fools go hiking in and around Iraq or Afghanistan and expect not to get abducted. Unfortunate? Yes. Tragic? Hardly. Tragedy is when an innocent person is killed by a drive-by shooting or a child gets cancer. This is just plain stupidity.